Posts in the 'Energy + Climate Change' category
Bio Fuels or Bio-Fools?
Bio Fuels or Bio-Fools?
The agrarian arms race to turn larger swaths of farmland over for the production of biofuels recently reached rhetorical heights as Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, argued that it would be a crime against ...
The Green Car Issue
The Green Car Issue
Are car companies thinking about more than one type of green? Photo by makeshiftlove from Flickr. The New York Times latest automobile issue takes a dramatic departure from the past and includes several articles on how environmental concerns are shaping ...
What Do Cheap Cars Mean for India's Cities?
What Do Cheap Cars Mean for India's Cities?
An Indian street scene. Photo by Satbir from Flickr. Last week the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune ran a story on the new Tata Car priced at $2,500 coming out in India in 2008. Some time ago ...
The Hidden Costs of Personal Mobility
The Hidden Costs of Personal Mobility
A biker struck by a car in Beijing. Courtesy of pmorgan of Flickr. It’s helpful to think about traffic safety with the following thought experiment: What would happen in a democratic forum, if the world’s population, represented by elected officials, ...
Demystifying TranSantiago
Demystifying TranSantiago
TranSantiago in action. Photo by Cobalito. “It is not common for a president to stand before the nation and say ‘Things haven’t gone well,” Michele Bachelet, Chile’s President, said in March of this year. “But that is exactly what I ...
What's Worse: Production or Use?
What's Worse: Production or Use?
Photo by Stephane Foulon. From Road and Track. This week’s addition of BusinessWeek includes an article about Gordon Murray, a celebrated race car designer, who is switching gear and working to create “a compact, fuel-efficient urban vehicle for the masses,” ...
Choking on Smog
Choking on Smog
Photo from BusinessWeek. In a Pulitzer grab, The New York Times is now running a series of two-page spreads called Choking on Growth about the dark under side – namely environmental contamination – of China’s economic development. Below are several ...
How to Debunk the Junk
How to Debunk the Junk
Bigger isn’t always better. Photo by powebooktrance. Recently CNW Marketing Research, an Oregon-based automotive research group, published a paper making the audacious claim that the Hummer is actually more energy efficient than the Prius. The study later showed up in ...
Hybrids for New York City
Hybrids for New York City
A Ford Escape Hybrid. Left: Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News, Right: Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images. Mayor Bloomberg has finally given the push to something hybrids were created for – stop and go traffic in New York City. As the ...
Air Pollution in Calcutta
Air Pollution in Calcutta
Clean hair but dirty lungs in Calcutta. (Photo by Shayan Sanyal.) Today the BBC reports that traffic police offices in Calcutta will be outfitted with oxygen devices as a way to counteract the ill-effects of air pollution. The news item ...
UN Urges Caution on Biofuels
UN Urges Caution on Biofuels
Will biofuels lead to deforestation? Photo by Mike Warren. When it comes to fighting global warming, biofuels are all the rage these days. Just ask Richard Branson, the hot-air baloon adventurer, whose post-industrial empire includes Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Limousines, Virgin ...
More Biking Buzz
More Biking Buzz
Bicycles have been around for well over 100 years (see a brief history here), but the push to make bikes a viable alternative to automobiles seems to be truly hitting the mainstream. This weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal ...
A Project in Social Forecasting
A Project in Social Forecasting
From the BBC: “How will climate change have affected the world by 2050?” Listen to Lee Schipper, EMBARQ‘s Director of Research, as he explains how urbanization, climate change, and transportation will combine to effect the world’s cities. Note: This file ...
New Yorker Embraces Congestion Pricing
New Yorker Embraces Congestion Pricing
Bloomtown: The Mayor plans to boost spending on public transport. (Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP) This week’s Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker features an opinion in support of congestion pricing for lower Manhattan. Written by climate journalist ...
Ford Creates New Post - Vice President for Sustainability
Ford Creates New Post – Vice President for Sustainability
Are Times Changing in Detroit? On Monday, The New York Times reported that Ford Motor’s chief executive acknowledged the link between greenhouse gases and global warming and vowed to respond to the threat of a heating planet by creating a ...
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